Eventually, he became Dr. Raymond Bauer, chairman of the department of physical education at North Carolina Wesleyan College. In the late 1940s, when baseball at Wake Forest first gained national recognition, he was simply "Moe," a slender lefthander whose uncanny control and variety of pitches were most often too much for even the toughest opponents.

In 1949, Bauer compiled a 4-0 regular-season record for the Southern Conference champion Deacons. He shut out Kentucky in the NCAA district title game and defeated Notre Dame in a regional playoff that helped the Deacs reach that year's four-team national championship, a 3-year-old event that was not yet named the College World Series.

The following season, the wily hurler achieved a remarkable 11-0 record, setting a single-season mark for victories that still stands. His 24 career wins at Wake Forest held as the school's all-time best for 39 years.

A promising professional career for Bauer following his graduation was interrupted by a stint in the Navy during the Korean War in 1952 and '53. He went 49-32 in seven seasons in the Chicago Cubs organization before deciding to pursue his career as an educator, joining the faculty at N.C. Wesleyan in 1960. He earned both his masters and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He helped to found the Dixie Intercollegiate Conference, of which Wesleyan is a member, and the baseball field at the school now bears his name. He retired from N.C. Wesleyan in 1993 after 33 years of service.

Dr. Bauer died on June 24, 2005.

He was also inducted into the N.C. Wesleyan College Sports Hall of Fame, and the American Legion of North Carolina Baseball Hall of Fame.

Dave Budd

One veteran Atlantic Coast Conference basketball observer has described Dave Budd as "perhaps the most competitive player ever to play for Wake Forest . . . or ever to play in the entire league."

Tough, hard-nosed, aggressive. When there was a loose ball, he would grab it. When a rebound was needed, he would throw his 6-foot, 6-inch body into the fray to retrieve it.

The forward from Woodbury, N.J., started for three consecutive years from 1958 through 1960. As a sophomore, he earned second-team All-ACC honors by leading the Deacons in scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage and free-throw percentage. He nearly matched those figures the following year as the club's top scorer and rebounder.

In 1960, his senior campaign, Budd captained one of Wake Forest's most popular squads, leading the team to the school's only Dixie Classic championship and a 21-7 record. That set the stage for back-to-back ACC title-winning years to follow. He was named to the all-league second unit in 1960 as well.

For his career, Budd ranks among Wake Forest's leaders in rebound average at 9.1 per game, total rebounds and free throws attempted and made. He is one of only 23 players in school history to total more than 1,000 points and more than 500 rebounds in a career.

After playing five years with the NBA's New York Knicks, Budd returned to his hometown and became a very successful businessman by serving as president and sole owner of the Gloucester County Packing Company. The Demon Deacons' practice court in the Miller Center is named in Budd's honor.

Pat Williams

Truly one of Wake Forest's most successful former student-athletes, Pat Williams has made an impact on the professional sports world with his innovative and energetic leadership, as well as touching the personal lives of countless individuals through his Christian-based motivational writings and talks.

On the playing field as a Deacon, Williams served as a catcher on the 1960, 1961 and 1962 Wake Forest baseball teams. His junior year he hit .308 in his finest year statistically and earned a brief career in professional baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Administration off the field would be his strength, though, and he quickly moved in that direction, advancing from the position of business manager on the Class A level to that of president and general manager of the Spartanburg Phillies just three years after earned his degree from Wake Forest.

In 1968, Williams left baseball to become business manager of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, beginning what became a marvelous career as one of the league's most respected teams.

Williams went on to become general manager of both the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks of the NBA before returning to the 76ers in the mid-1970s, where he rebuilt a struggling franchise into one of the league's finest. He constructed the team that won the NBA title in 1983.

He moved on to the Orlando Magic, a new franchise as the president and general manager, seeing them to the NBA Finals in 1995. Williams is currently the senior vice president for the Magic, which made the NBA Finals in 2009.